Unless he surprises almost everyone by showing support for Pat Shurmur, CEO Joe Banner is going to begin a search for a new head coach for the Browns on Monday. If not then, he'll start making phone calls by Wednesday at the latest.

Banner better get it right. He will have to move quickly, too, because he and owner Jimmy Haslam III won't be the only ones shopping for a new coach.

Norv Turner in San Diego, Andy Reid in Philadelphia, Romeo Crennel in Kansas City, Chan Gailey in Buffalo, Ken Whisenhunt in Arizona, Mike Munchak in Tennessee and Mike Mularkey in Jacksonville all underachieved in 2012.

With the exception of the Chargers (Philip Rivers) each of those teams, including the Browns, had quarterback issues this season.

The Browns did not underachieve. Most NFL experts predicted they wouldn't win more than two or three games. They carry a 5-10 record into Pittsburgh, but Haslam did not hire Shurmur so, fair or not, most fans want Haslam to fire him.

For the record, I stand by my belief Haslam should stick with the status quo, but I do not expect that.

Here are a few coaching candidates Banner could be considering:

-- Marty Mornhinweg, Eagles offensive coordinator: Mornhinweg, 50, was 5-27 as head coach of the Lions in 2001-02. Nobody had any luck coaching those teams put together by former Lions president Matt Millen.

Reid hired Mornhinweg in 2003, an indication Reid looked beyond the Lions record to when he and Mornhinweg coached together under Mike Holmgren in Green Bay.

This is Mornhinweg's 10th season with the Eagles. He is wiser from his failed stint with the Lions and Banner knows Mornhinweg well because Banner and Mornhinweg were together 10 years in Philadelphia.

On the negative side, if Mornhinweg were a legitimate hot coaching candidate, someone else should have hired him by now.

-- Nick Saban, head coach, Alabama: Never trust a Nick Saban denial. Besides, he never flat out said: "I absolutely am not leaving Alabama to coach the Browns after the BCS championship game." He did say he is perfectly happy at Alabama, that there are always challenges to keep the Tide rolling and that he doesn't "have many more moves left" in him at age 61. But he did not say he has no moves left.

Beating Notre Dame on Jan. 7 for the BCS championship would mean four crystal footballs for Saban - one at LSU and three in the last four years at Alabama. He has already proven he is a great college coach. He was 15-17 for two years with the Miami Dolphins. The urge to prove he can coach in the NFL might be too difficult to resist.

-- Bruce Arians, Colts offensive coordinator: If anyone in the NFL has emerged as a leading head-coaching candidate this year it is Arians. He was the Colts interim head coach from Oct. 1 through Dec. 24 when Chuck Pagano was being treated for leukemia. The Colts won nine games with rookie quarterback Andrew Luck under Arians' watch.

Arians is 60 years old. That could be a concern, but he relates well to Luck and the young Indianapolis players, so it shouldn't be.

Arians has a strong pedigree that includes three years as Browns offensive coordinator under Butch Davis from 2001-2003. The Browns scored 344 points, finished 9-7 and made the playoffs in 2002 with Arians calling plays.

The Browns fell to 5-11 and their point production fell to 254 points in 2003. Arians left the Browns to join the dark side as the Steelers receivers coach in 2004. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2007. The Steelers played in three Super Bowls and won two while Arians was in Pittsburgh.

-- Josh McDaniels, Patriots offensive coordinator: First off, the fact McDaniels was born and raised in Canton doesn't mean anything unless he is being hired to drive a city bus there. He has proven he is an excellent offensive coordinator with the Patriots but he did not prove to be a good head coach. He was 5-17 with the Broncos after starting out 6-0. He was fired with four games left in his second season.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen made a huge mistake when he hired McDaniels, then 32, to be the Bill Belichick of the Rocky Mountains. He gave McDaniels too much power. McDaniels tried and failed to get quarterback Matt Cassel from the Patriots, feuded with and then traded quarterback Jay Cutler to the Bears, traded Peyton Hillis plus draft picks to the Browns for Brady Quinn, changed the zone-blocking scheme that worked so well for Mike Shanahan in Denver and chose not to retain defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

With Banner running the show and likely to fire Tom Heckert in favor of another general manager, McDaniels would not be the dictator he was in Denver. However, Banner says the head coach should have final say on the roster.

Head coaches that failed the first go-around sometimes deserve a second chance. It worked for Belichick and could work for McDaniels.

But think about the track record of coaches from the Belichick coaching tree. It is downright awful. Crennel, Eric Mangini, McDaniels and Charlie Weiss were all huge successes as coordinators under Belichick and colossal failures as head coaches. Plus, McDaniels would have to leave Tom Brady behind in Foxboro, Mass.

-- Ray Horton, Cardinals co-defensive coordinator: Horton is going to be a hot candidate and with so many openings he is bound to end up on some sideline as head coach next season - possibly right in Arizona if Whisenhunt is fired.

The former cornerback of the Bengals and Cowboys runs the defense ranked 12th in the league. The Cardinals have intercepted 22 passes, second-most in the NFL, and opposing quarterbacks have a league-worst 68.5 passer rating against the Cardinals defense.

On the negative side, Arizona ranks 28th vs. the run. Also, the Cardinals play a 3-4 defense. The Browns are built for a 4-3 scheme. The line is the strength of the defense with huge tackles Ahtyba Rubin and Phil Taylor at the heart of it.

-- Chip Kelly, head coach Oregon: Kelly almost left the Ducks last season to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but decided to return to Oregon. Oregon plays Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday.

The moment the game ends, Kelly-to-the-NFL rumors will really heat up. By then, Banner will likely be zeroing in on a new coach.

The Ducks are 45-7 under Kelly. He likes a no-huddle, spread offense that might not work so well for four quarters in the NFL. But it would be interesting to see what Brandon Weeden would do in that offense, which would more closely resemble what he played at Oklahoma State.

For some reason, successful college coaches rarely have that same success in the NFL. Steve Spurrier (12-20 with the Redskins), Lou Holtz (3-10 with the Jets) and Bobby Petrino (3-10 with the Falcons) are examples. I did not include Seahawks coach Pete Carroll because he had numerous NFL jobs, including Patriots head coach, before coaching at USC.

-- Mike McCoy, Broncos offensive coordinator: The question here is how much credit does McCoy get for Denver's 10-game winning streak, or is it all Peyton Manning?

McCoy, 40, proved last year he can adapt to the players around him when he revamped the Broncos' offense to fit Tim Tebow. He definitely deserves an interview.

Information for the NFL notebook was gathered by personal interviews and from other beat writers around the league. Schudel can be reached by email at: